FIRST NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS A trusted partnership with EMC Customer Service

FIRST NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
SOLUTIONS
A trusted partnership with EMC Customer Service
Established in 1996, First National Technology Solutions (FNTS) is a Managed Services
Provider (MSP) supporting clients across the United States. A subsidiary of First
National of Nebraska, FNTS offers data center services—including enterprise cloud
services—and managed colocation.
James O'Neil, senior director of Systems and Storage at FNTS, is responsible for the
hypervisor and the UNIX, Linux, and Power AIX operating systems; block and NAS
storage; and backup and disaster recovery.
EMC® is heavily represented in the storage and backup environments with EMC VMAX,
EMC VNX®, EMC Isilon®, EMC Data Domain®, EMC Avamar®, EMC VPLEX®, and EMC
ESSENTIALS
Industry
Managed Services Provider
Challenges
•
Maintaining 100% customer
uptime and availability
•
Anticipating problems before
they occur
•
Being proactive in reducing risk
Solutions
XtremIOTM systems.
UPTIME AND AVAILABILITY
O’Neil says an MSP’s infrastructure brings challenges that other infrastructures may
not see. “We stress our systems more than a standard enterprise customer might. If
our systems are down, our customers are down. It is a bad scenario to be in.”
The challenge of providing 100 percent uptime and availability to its clients means
FNTS relies heavily on vendor service and support. According to O'Neil, it is a key
consideration when purchasing storage gear.
He says EMC comes out on top when it comes to service and support and describes
his overall experience with EMC Customer Service as very positive with a very good
•
EMC Secure Remote Services
(ESRS)
track record.
•
EMC Live Chat
response time,” says O'Neil. “We have had great success in moments of crisis in
•
Online Support/Support
Community Forums
•
Phone Support
•
EMC Customer Engineer
Results
•
•
•
“EMC understands our business and is able to provide valuable input and a very rapid
getting the right resources engaged. EMC has done a phenomenal job of working with
my team to resolve issues quickly.”
He reports that FNTS dropped another major vendor because of a lack of customer
service.
“This business is a speed game,” he says. “We are up against the big MSPs in the
market and we can’t afford to have systems that are unreliable or down. EMC goes
Proactive approach helps
maintain continuous operations
above and beyond. I have the ability to quickly engage an engineer with the right
Tools and technology from EMC
empower self-reliance
We have a great resolution path with EMC. They have the right processes in place so it
expertise. Other vendors require us to go through levels before we get to an engineer.
works consistently.”
Teamwork and trusted
partnership lead to rapid
resolutions
CUSTOMER PROFILE
TEAMWORK
“We have to ensure that our systems are up one hundred percent of the time,” says
O'Neil. “We build in redundancy but you can only make an environment so redundant
before you overcomplicate it. When we have an issue whether in storage or backup, I
feel that EMC and FNTS work as a team to resolve it. This is unique compared to our
other vendors. I feel that EMC is in it with us. When there is an issue they work
through it. They feel the pain with us and are willing to do whatever it takes to get the
system back up.”
When he has an issue he reiterates it is EMC’s issue as well. “With some other
vendors, you get this scripted response the first three times you talk to them. With
EMC we are able to connect with the right person the first time 90 percent of the time
for all severity levels. I feel there is a team environment and I definitely think the EMC
engineers feel the same way.”
“EMC understands our business and is able to provide better input
and a very rapid response time. We have had great success in
moments of crisis in getting the right resources engaged. EMC
has done a phenomenal job of working with my team to resolve
issues quickly.”
James O’Neil, Senior Director of Systems and Storage at FNTS
TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP
O'Neil thinks it is important that EMC is a leader in storage technology. “Most of our
customers don’t know the technology. They just want to run their business. That’s
why they are outsourcing to us. It is great to be able to point out to them that we are
doing business with EMC, acknowledged to have the best solutions and customer
service in the market. It is important to us that EMC is the leader and stays in the
lead.”
EMPOWERING SELF-RELIANCE
When it comes to online support tools such as EMC Secure Remote Services (ESRS),
Online Support, Support Community Forums, Phone Support, and Live Chat, O'Neil
reports that FNTS uses “any and all of the tools. We take advantage of Live Chat,
ESRS, and also use phone support. Most of our service requests start with Live Chat.”
O'Neil says the fact that EMC has multiple ways to connect is important and useful.
“Every engineer I have on staff works differently so it is important for them to feel
comfortable connecting with EMC Customer Service using a support method they feel
at ease with,” he says. “They tend to migrate to the most comfortable approach for
them. I think having those options helps our engineers work more easily with EMC
engineers.”
Regarding ESRS, O'Neil says, “We use ESRS all the time for upgrades, patches, and
predictive monitoring. The ability for my engineer and EMC’s engineer to see in real
time exactly what is going on in the array at the same point in time is invaluable to
us. Most importantly, we are able to proactively resolve potential issues before they
impact our environment.”
“The online support tools are all there and they help my engineers to take more
control over their part of the infrastructure,” O'Neil says. “While we lean pretty heavily
on EMC for support, the ability to have all those service and support tools helps build
my staff’s capabilities. My storage engineers are very empowered. We’re getting
better at figuring out things on our own and using the online resources. We can
depend on EMC to bring the right resources and information forward quickly so our
team is not sitting there feeling hopeless.”
PROACTIVE CONVERSATIONS
O'Neil sees EMC as being very proactive. He likes the fact EMC keeps him up to date
on maintenance due or patches available. “Something that won’t impact a client might
impact us,” he says. “We are finding that EMC is helping us catch those scenarios and
ensure that our systems are up all the time.” He praises his EMC Customer Engineer
and says he does “a great job working with my team to keep that proactive
conversation ongoing, looking through our service requests, environment, and
business needs and making recommendations, including timing of upgrades.”
A TRUSTED BUSINESS PARTNER
O'Neil trusts EMC both in crisis and everyday issues. He recalls an incident
encountered after migrating one of their customers to a new EMC system.
“This was my first interaction with EMC Customer Service,” he reports. “EMC brought
the right players to the table and, working over the phone, we resolved the issue in a
very short time for the amount of work that had to be done. We knew what the best
resolution was and we both worked to that resolution as partners.”
O'Neil notes that when working with any technology, things aren’t going to function
perfectly all the time.
“When incidents do arise, how they are resolved tells me about the company I am
doing business with,” he says. “There has to be trust in order for a partnership to
work. That is the bar I hold EMC Customer Service to and they live up to it every
time. That is the invaluable relationship we have with EMC today. EMC is absolutely
our business partner.”
CONTACT US
To learn more about how EMC
products, services, and solutions can
help solve your business and IT
challenges, contact your local
representative or authorized reseller—
or visit us at www.emc.com.
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registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries.
© Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA. 03/15 Customer
Profile H13993
EMC believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The
information is subject to change without notice.